My Rotator Cuff Surgery Experience: Does it Really Work?

If you have ever had to have rotator cuff surgery of any kind, you know how painful it can be. So is it really worth the pain to have it done. From personal experience of having my husband go through it four times (twice on each shoulder), he would probably say that it is not worth it at all.

His first surgery was in 2005. It took several hours to do the surgery which also included removing arthritis from the AC Joint. When my husband came to the pain was almost unbearable. Yet the doctor sent him home with an "ice machine". This was a machine that had what looked like a cooler attached to it to fill with ice. He would then put it on his shoulder and the cool was supposed to hold down swelling and help with pain.

However, nothing helped the first night. The pain was so extreme that my husband (6'3" tall and 275 pounds of solid steel and nerves of steel and usually could bear the most horrid of pain) cried his eyes out almost all night long. Sleep never did come for him at all for at least three nights after surgery.

And then the most horrible part happened. The doctor had my husband doing therapy three days after having surgery. The very first day he was there they had him raising his arm over his head. Once he raised it over his head and could not lower it. The therapist simply took a hold of his arm and pulled it back down for him. My husband came up off the table from the pain. And that is not the worst part. It also pulled the anchor out that had been put in his rotator cuff. So another surgery was inevitable.

The second surgery came actually one month after the first. And the second was just as horrible and painful as the first. It was the same thing for my husband for several days afterwards. However, the doctor did not start therapy as soon this time. And my husband specifically told the doctor that he would never return to the therapist he went to before.

Then my husband injured his left shoulder and had to experience the same thing again. However, this time it was with a different surgeon. This was in 2007 with the second one (again) coming in 2008. Since my husband is left handed, this one was really even worse. Again the pain was unbearable. And this time during the surgery the surgeon had to use some techniques that were usually not used to put the anchor in. He said this was because my husband is so big and he could not get the anchor in any other way.

Well, again, the anchor came out and had to be redone. The first time this surgeon did the surgery he did not even mention therapy until a month after surgery. The second time he did not even have my husband go to a therapist at all. He just gave my husband a list of things to do and not do for a while.

So why am I telling you all of this? My husbands shoulders are still both so messed up and hurting that my husband still cries from the pain at times. He needs to have another surgery done but does not feel like he can go through that again.

In other words, if your doctor suggests you have rotator cuff surgery, please get another opinion and even another. Have them try Cortisone shots first or any other thing they may recommend before going through the horror and pain and agony of surgery. Try therapy first. Try anything you absolutely can before you head for the operating table. My husband said that the pain was the worst he had ever been through. And he has even fallen off ladders and had a major motorcycle wreck which his parents were told he would not even survive. He said that the pain after he woke up from the motorcycle wreck was almost like getting a splinter compared to the pain of rotator cuff surgery.

Therefore, remember that doctors are out for the almighty buck and going to try to get the most they can any way they can. So no matter what happens, do not let them do surgery without trying other things. Do not let them do surgery without getting at least one other or even two other opinions. You could save yourself a lot of pain.

Source: Personal experience of my husband having four surgeries on his shoulders